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José González

Biography

Jose Gonzalez burst upon the modern singer-songwriter scene with his 2004 debut album, Veneer, an ambitious mix of British folk-inspired balladry, classical guitar and indie-rock savvy. The record echoed everybody from John Martyn to Red House Painter Mark Kozelek to Brazilian pop legend Caetano Veloso. Yet it also possessed a refreshing sense of modernity; just about everybody who heard the album knew he or she was witnessing the birth of an important new artist. Though his family is of Argentinean descent, Gonzalez was born in Sweden, where he eventually fell in with the hardcore punk scene. He cut his teeth on a slew of loud-and-angry rock bands before cofounding Only If You Call Me Jonathan, which was kind of like Scandinavia's emo-pop answer to Sunny Day Real Estate. After striking out on his own in the late 1990s, Gonzalez's career received a boost when the track "Crosses" appeared on the television show The O.C. He released his second solo album, In Our Nature, in 2007, and he collaborates frequently with fellow Swedes including DJ Jori Hulkkonen and Zero 7. He has also released an EP as a member of the group Junip.